Brisas - Week 42

Hello to all my Friends and Family out there,

For the first time in 10 1/2 months, transfers have brought me to a new area! I'm in a pueblo called Hunucma. It's a cute little place and I'm really excited! This pueblo looks a little less authentic than others, kinda like the city look where I've been before, but its still neat. Actually, my "firstborn" Hermana Pinguelo was sent here when we separated and right now Hermana Suarez is here too, in the same ward as me. So 2 of my old comps have been through here. So far what I've heard about this area, is that the Bishop is really great and sells ice cream bars for a living and loves to spoil the missionaries with them! :) Also, my area is made up of 2 parts that are spaced out and the other half is on the beach. On the beach area, I guess there is an newly baptized American couple that don't really speak Spanish. Haha, It's convenient I'm here, because before now, other missionaries had to travel here to teach them and baptize them. I'm excited to meet them!

More than likely I'll end my mission here with this companion, and that's okay with me. My companion has about 8 months in the mission and is from the Dominican Republic. She's tall and about the same build as me, so we made a good pair! Haha. She doesn't know a ton of English, but really wants to learn, so hopefully I will be able to teach her a lot while I am here.

Saturday we had Pilar's baptism. When it started, I don't know what was up with me, but I felt frustrated because Pilar was SO happy, yet I felt like nothing was special about the little baptismal service. The talks and everything weren't bad, but I felt like everyone was in robot Mormon mode and a lot of the people in the audience weren't engaged. After the ordinance, the Ward Mission Leader wanted to just end it with the welcome from the Relief Society President, but my comp kept bugging me to have one of her kids talk, so her son came to my mind, and we asked him really quick and it changed the whole Baptism. Her son is less active as of 3 years ago, but is really great and used to be super involved. All his kids are active and were at the baptism too. He got up and cried and said he wants to come back to church and that he felt so happy and everything he said brought tears to each one of his kids eyes, and his mom's too. It brought the spirit so strong because you could see that he really felt it and really loved his family a lot and wanted to be united again. I was so thankful that my comp followed the spirit and that we acted on it.  

I'm excited for the changes,  but I'm feeling really sad to have left Brisas and my companion. Yesterday, we didn't have appointments with investigators, so we visited recent converts and members I wanted to see one last time before I left. We visited Henry's family and he said he bought a whole computer system of some sort and he can video chat free to the USA. He said he bought it with us in mind. That last day kinda sucked because it's so hard to really love people and know it has to come to an end. Obviously not completely, but things definitely change when you get switched out of the area. Love really is the essence of the church though. (Or ought to be at least!) I just feel SO blessed to have met such good, real, loving people here. I feel like their love has made me love them so much, and right now it just kinda hurts. I know this will be a good change though and that I'll learn a lot. Hermana Lugo and I were talking about how much transfers stink, but really they're necessary to learn and grow. And its true. We exist to grow up to be like our Heavenly Father and we'll only do it by testing ourselves and having new experiences.

Love you all!

- Hermana Harper

Pilar's Baptism

My  new Companion - Hermana Lugo

Brisas - Week 41

Good Morning!

Today I'm writing early because our meetings were cancelled and now we have the whole day to do something fun!

This week we didn't have the baptism we were planning on because Pilars mom got sick and she had to take care of her. BUT, this Saturday we're on for the baptism! It'll be right before the transfer ends, so I'm glad I get to be here for it.

I can't believe the transfer is almost done. I'm pretty much already "dying" here because I'm only going to have 12 weeks left! We'll see if I stay more time in my area. I rrrreally don't know anymore because the president told my companion he wanted to keep us together as long as he could, but if I stay much longer, I'll almost complete just a year here. Hopefully if I do stay, I'll at least get to spend my last transfer in a pueblo or something, because I think they're so cute!

This week we had a lot of success with one of our less actives, Felipe. He finally made it to church this week and brought a friend who is interested in learning more. Unfortunately, the friend doesn't live in our area. Felipe knows lotsss of people so, we're hoping if we keep working with him we'll find some really prepared people.

Love you all,
Hermana Harper

Brisas - Week 40

Happy Late Valentines day!

This week was pretty fun! Tuesday we had a mini miracle, all thanks to Heavenly Father's perfect timing. We have this member,  Cristian (18 yrs) that introduced us to his friend Jordan and we've been teaching them. We went to Cristian's house, but his friend had cancelled, so we just decided to visit with his parents. His mom loves the missionaries, a lot,  and has had some drama with the members, so decided to take advantage of the time and try and help her out. The drama was that her and her husband have been taking the sacrament (they're still not members because they're trying to finalize the wife's divorce with her ex in order to get married) and the bishop had asked them not to and some members had said stuff too. Long story short is, they felt bad and had their minds set on not returning until they would be able to get baptized (they've already waited 8 years!) and mean while would go to other  wards. Well, we'd asked for the Bishop's help with them, and without even planning it, he showed up while we were still there visiting them. Right as he got there, some people showed up to install some stuff in their house, and there was A LOT of commotion, but we were able to sit down and the Bishop explained the sacrament and how he was trying to help them. He said very lovingly how he needed them to progress towards baptism because it's so crucial, and without plans and goals, that privilege had to be taken away. The parents did really understand, especially when the Bishop put it into the perspective of eternal families and the temple. It was neat because the wife is a really stubborn person, but the spirit pricked her heart ! :)

A few days later, we finally had our lesson with Cristian and his friend Jordan and the lesson melted my heart. The two are really good friends and Cristian is a really faithful member and wants more than anything for his friend to accept the gospel. Jordan isn't closed off to it, but he also feels a pull to the catholic church because that's what his family and ancestors were, yet he's not active in that church either. Christian spent a pretty big part of the lesson just sharing his testimony and love for his friend and how he'd felt prompted to share with Jordan right now. One thing Cristian said that I really liked, is that really soon he'll be leaving to serve a full time mission and he said he couldn't leave to share the gospel without having shared it with someone really important to him. That's really the spirit of missionary work! Sharing something that's important to us, with people we love and care about.

This week we also found 3 people with tons of potential. A member in another ward gave us the reference of a less active in our area (who just moved here a few months ago), and from this less active we received the reference of his friend Gabriel. Gabriel is divorced with 2 or 3 little kids and he's pretty sad. He's a radiologist at the little hospital in our area, and he says when he can't distract his himself with his kids or work he turns to drinking,  and he hates it. He says he feels like he's doing all these dumb things and knows they're dumb but something pushes him to do it.  He says he wants something more wholesome to replace the drinking. He believes in God and is willing to make whatever change is necessary. We barely talked to him, so we'll see where he goes. He would have gone to church, but the member that introduced us to him didn't wake up to go with him. :(

The other new investigator is Rodrigo, who DID go to church on Sunday. His mom is less active and I've been trying to get her to go back to church pretty much since I got here. Rodrigo has been really busy with school and stuff, but all the sudden decided that now he's ready to listen and see if all this is for him or not. Our ward mission leader was super impressed by him because he's really engaged and really sharp. In gospel priciples class, he was answering all the questions!

The last is Felipe. Hna Pitcher contacted him on the bus, and he's willing to listen because he's had a lot of problems with his wife leaving and kids too. He wants his wife back more than anything, and is worried because he feels like his wife's family is against him. Its looks like the wife still loves him though, but she wants to see a change in him. We explained that that's what the gospel does and how we are positive that if he trusts God, he'll get his family back because families are really important to God. That lesson was intense because the spirit was so so strong. I felt like my companion and I always knew what to say and when, and that it was really what he needed to hear.

Our Valentines together was fun :) We bought ourselves a balloon with candies from an investigator that was selling them. Then we bugged a member that helps us a lot to get us flowers, and he did! That morning we also made pancakes- which we always do for special days haha. And that's about it!

Love,
Hermana Harper

Brisas - Week 39

Hola!!!

Well, this week  we officially didn't find Hermana Pilar's baptismal record, so she can get baptized again! I called the elders in the offices, and they called Salt Lake, and apparently she has records in the church, but not as a member. It’s called a leech record, or something like that.  So, she was probably blessed as a baby, but never baptized. We were going to have the big day this Saturday (Valentines Day), but we couldn't get in touch with her and she slept in Sunday morning, so more than likely in 2 weeks we'll be doing it. We're hoping our other, Leticia, will be ready by then too because she said she has the papers she needed for her divorce. As far as baptisms, that's all that's really very sure. Our 2 others who've said they want to get baptized have just been being kinda flaky!

On Sunday, Henry's family made it to church, all of them, AND on time! I was so proud :) The two little girls really crack me up. There's this member named Moroni that we take with us to visit them and he also has passed by to bring them to church, and Betzi has been starting to confuse him with "Mormon" and calls the book of Mormon the book of Moroni, hahaha. I think it confuses her too because in primary they were taking about the Angel Moroni, Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, so she gets it mixed up a lot and I think its really funny. One thing that Henry's wife (Suzi) told us once,  is that her 2 girls like to put on their little dresses and pretend they're missionaries. She says they'll round up their parents and have them read the scriputres and ask the parents questions and stuff. Too cute!! Hopefully they'll both be future missionaries when they grow up!

Our recent convert, Ricardo, is doing REALLY well! We had him accompany us with visits and he seems like he's been a member all his life. We only began with his like maybe a month and a half ago, so everything is still pretty fresh. We visited Juan Enrique, and right now he's just starting- exactly where Ricardo was a like a month and a half ago. We laughed afterwards, because Juan Enrique was just like Ricardo when he started.  Like for example, when we taught Ricardo to pray, in all our lessons he'd always pull out his Book of Mormon and read the 4 steps on the back first. When we asked Juan Enrique to say the closing prayer, he automatically pulled out his book to see the steps and I saw Ricardo smile. Its cool that Ricardo was in his place not that long ago, yet has already come so far and gained so much confidence. It makes the mission so rewarding to see that. I just wish all our investigators could be so ready like he was!

This week we had interviews with President and Zone Conference. Zone Conference was in the morning and long and boring as usual haha! Interviews were fun because it took our whole day! The president really needs to learn to plan interviews better because he puts someone at every half hour or so, yet he takes like 45 min - 1 hour with everyone. Mostly he just talks and asks random stuff too. In the interview we looked at how our personal family history is going and how we're doing with developing Christ like attributes. I found that where I need to work more is expressing love more. I guess I'm not very verbal about it with a lot of people, so that's what I'm working on!

One thing that was pretty cool is that we found a new investigator named Joel. We were in the bus with a member and starting talking to him because he was with his uncle who looks exactly like a less active in our ward named Carlos. Turns out they're brothers (the Uncle and Carlos) and we made appts to see both of them. The uncle wasn´t there when we went, but Joel was home and he's a really sincere guy. He's younger and divorced, with a little boy and more than anything he wants to be a good example for his little boy. He accepted the goal to be baptized!

I learned how to make one of the foods here! I'm actually suspicious if it exists with a different name in the US (potato salad?), but here its common! Its called ensalada rusa and its really easy. All it is, is chopped up carrots, potatoes, onion, peas, and chicken with pepper, mayo, and media crema. Everyone just eats it with saltine crackers and its really good. We made some Wednesday with a member to take to a couple leaders who help us a lot. We have another appt with her to learn to make empanadas, so I'm excited for that!

Love,
Hermana Harper

Brisas - Week 38

Febuary. Wow!

This week's highlight...Ricardo's baptism. He was SO happy, so that was so neat. The day before (Friday) we had his interview in the mission offices, so afterwards we walked right next door to the temple with him. It was just starting to get dark, so we talked to him about all he has to look forward to. He has the goal to get married in the temple one day and hopes his little daughter chooses to follow his example instead of his mom's. At his baptism, his mom and cousin came, who are both members! We didn't have any idea his mom was a member, but that was cool. At the end she bore her testimony and I think it meant a lot to her son. I was a little disappointed by the turnout of members honestly, but Ricardo didn't seem to mind, and that's what's most important!

This Sunday we also had the farewell for Israel, the guy who was baptized a year ago and is the only member in his family. He leaves tomorrow and is SOOO excited. He is so humble and so sincere so I know he'll have a lot of success. Both of his parents came to his farewell (in the evening) and I think that's the first time they've ever set foot in the chapel. We're hoping their hearts were softened that night, because so far they haven't been very interested in listening to anything from  another church.

At church we had 2 investigators, which means hopefully 2 baptisms soon! We're starting to count Pilar as an investigator because we haven't been able to find her baptismal record. It's funny because we first found her through her grand kids that live with her, who are members, but didn't know that their grandma was a member. Haha, the first day we met her we asked her to be baptized and that's when she came out with her little secret, that she is already a member. But now, we may end up baptizing her! The other investigator that came is Leticia, her husband was less active, but now the two of them have decided to invest in the church :) Her date isn't set because we're waiting for her to sign on her divorce, but it's supposed to be like this week. Or so they say haha- we've been waiting a month already :( But we're choosing to be hopeful!

Henry's family didn't make it to church because the baby got sick which seems to always happen, so it’s a little frustrating. As far as less actives/recent converts at church though we did have one new one! We met a random guy at the store a while back and he said he was a member, but hasn't gone in like 10 years. When we wrote down his info, it turned out that he lives in our area, so that was cool! We've visited him the last 3 weeks and finally this Sunday he was able to make it. His name is Italico, and he's divorced, so we're looking into our older single adults for a future girlfriend for him because he's super lonely.

Also this week we met a lady who has the saddest story! We met her walking past her house one day. Her and her sister listened to us and we really interested, even though I could tell they didn't probably understand quite everything. They said yes to being baptized, and a couple days later when we saw them again the one sister (Isabel) told us her whole life story.  She grew up with abusive parents and pretty much raised her 7 sisters. She grew up and got married, but she´s never let go of her fear of her step dad. Her youngest sister lives with her (20 years old) and she took 2 of her nieces under her wing because her other sister abandoned them. So living with her are her own 3 boys, a sister, and 2 nieces. She's really incredible because she's so happy and so bubbly. You'd never know she has a past like she does. We're trying really hard to get them to come to church, but Isabel is worried her husband won't be okay with it :(

Until next week! Hermana Harper

Brisas - Week 37

¡Hola!

So, right now in the mission we're focusing a lot on family history. Tomorrow, actually, we get to go to the temple with our recent converts and help them to do the work for THEIR family. Tomorrow we're going to take Gabriel (Hermana Pitcher and her last comp baptized him) to the temple and he's really excited. We found 9 names for him to do, so that's really exciting!

I can't wait for Saturday, because we're having another baptism: Ricardo! He is SO ready and so happy. I can't remember what I've said about him, but he's 23 and has a little girl. His uncle is a member, so that's how he heard about the church. He started going originally because he liked a member in his uncle's ward, but he only went to that ward for 2 Sundays and the missionaries handed him over to us. From the beginning he's been amazing. He said his interest in the church started for a crush, but now he's really in it because HE wants to be- and we can totally see that. He already seems like a member because he's going to all the activities, has friends, and has all the books and everything downloaded onto his phone, haha. I'm really happy for him!

Something interesting this week was that Betzi (Henry's daughter that got baptized) told us she had a dream right after the baptism. She said in the dream an evil force came and was trying to break her family apart and was pulling away her mom. In the dream, I guess Betzi pulled back, and fell over because the evil force let go. The parents said they felt like it was probably the adversary who wasn't happy with what they had done as a family. It's crazy because it really was a battle getting the family baptized, and shows there are always those against us, but luckily we're fighting on the stronger side!

Ricardo also said he's had some scary dreams, but we showed him a couple scriptures that say flat out PRAY to conquer Satan. And it's really as simple as that :) It strengthened my testimony of prayer from hearing about all that, because prayer really is a power that we can always, always turn to.

Other random things from this week: I left Brisas this week for the first time! I went on divisions with the sister training leaders in their area, and one came here with my comp. I think being away just made me miss my area because we didn't have ANY success while I was there. Everyone was a little colder and stuck in their lazy ways. Also, Saturday night the councilor in the bishopric came and asked me and my comp to speak Sunday, and we have services at 8am. I heard from several members that that isn't that unusual. Haha, so that was my 2nd time speaking in the mish!

Bye!
Love to all of you,
Hermana Harper

Brisas - Week 36

The impossible happened... Transfers? I didn't have any!!! I'm STAYING in Brisas! By the end of this transfer I'll have completed 10 1/2 months here. More than any other sister I've heard of in the mission. But, I'm really happy about it! I love my companion a lot (despite our differences sometimes!)  and this ward and these investigators are feeling more and more like family to me. For this next transfer we have 4 baptisms that are pretty sure, so that makes me excited!

This week was super special because Henry, Suzi, Doorly, and Betsy all got baptized!!! We had the baptism Thursday and not a lot of people could make it, but everyone who needed to be there was there.  Hermana Pitcher and I gave the little talks before the ordinance, and after Jesus (convert from Garcia Gineres) came and bore his testimony about the Holy Ghost. The bishop baptized the 4 of them and I think that made him really happy. Everyone who was there seemed in awe that a WHOLE family was being baptized together,  so that was really cool :)

Other things that happened this week were exchanges with the sister training leaders. Haha I stayed, for the 6th time in my 6 transfers!  We visited some less actives and 2 investigators- Ricardo and Juan Enrique. Both are doing so well! Ricardo's baptismal date is set in stone for the 31st and Juan Enrique just needs to come to church so we can give him a realistic date. With him, he just hasn't been able to get out of work on time to be able to go.

Today we didn't have district meeting, so we spent our P-day in Centro. We met up with Hermana Pinguelo and Hermana Hobbs in a Mayan bookstore and bought some little touristy things. The weather has been PERFECT lately, so it was fun walking around Centro today. We also ate at a popular restaruant here called Los Trompos. They´re known for their meat al pastor, so we got one of their specialty pizzas and split it :)

On a spiritual note, during exchanges I learned something from Hermana Smith that I liked a lot. In 3 Nephi 20 there's a verse that we recite a lot with people. Verse 8:

"And he said unto them: He that eateth this bread eateth of my body to his soul; and he that drinketh of this wine drinketh of my blood to his soul; and his soul shall never hunger nor thirst, but shall be filled"

We talked about the verse and what could be our personal, spiritual "hunger" or "thirst." Everyone has things they long for: patience, a stronger feeling for God's presence, happiness, love... When we do the things God has asked us and strive to be worthy to partake of the sacrament, this longing or emptiness is filled. But, when we choose to not fill our longing with the right kinds of things, the result is frustration, being annoyed easily, anger, sorrow, depression, etc. I really like the promise that through the sacrament and remembering what it really represents, we can be filled. Filled with the spirit and with that have our spiritual hunger fed . Obviously, it's not an automatic thing though- we really should be preparing all week long by not justifying bad decisions and repenting when we need to. When we do that, the very best that we can, we have God's promise.

Love, Hermana Harper

Israel - He will be leaving on a mission in February!

Brisas - Week 35

HOLA!

This week was a pretty exciting week! Tuesday was the 3 kings holiday, which I love! Besides the whole presents in the shoe thing (which I'm not even really sure how many people do that), the holiday mostly consists of getting a bunch of people together and eating a "rosca." A rosca is bread in the shape of a long doughnut and inside are little plastic babies! Haha, They are supposed to represent baby Jesus. Supposedly there should just be one, and whoever gets it has to buy tamales for the Virgin Mary's birthday in February.

Tuesday night, we took a less active (less active in our ward, but has been going to another ward sundays because she's with her mom weekends) named Maria Jose with us to a big YSA activity for our ward, at a member's house. We went with Maria Jose and another active member and the turn out was really good. I think there was like 15 people there, and we were only missing 5. For our ward, it was a miracle. That  night, we spent about 40 min going around sharing our testimonies and I think it must have been inspired! Maria Jose said in hers that for a really long time she's been inactive, but has been going to church the last year or so, and had decided she wouldn't bear her testimony until she really felt the desire to. Well, when it got to her she said that, and then teared up because she said she realized she really does have a testimony and she shared why she knew she always did. It was really neat watching her have a moment like that.

After testimonies, we parted the rosca! They let me go first, and what do you know, I got the little baby Jesus doll! I was SO excited because I was hoping I'd get it, but I thought I wouldn't because I assumed there would just be one. Haha, it turns out though that there were like 8, so most of us got one. That  was really fun though. At that activity, we had our recent convert, investigator Ricardo, and another less active (Moroni) all there, so it was definitely a success!

Wednesday we had a little miracle because we taught a new investigator, and during the middle of the lesson (we were outside on the porch), a kid named Daniel came and asked us where the chapel was. I guess he moved here 6 months ago and is a member of  3 years and wanted to start going to church again. We invited him in on the lesson and without us really even needing to ask, just bore his testimony to Juan Enrique right at the perfect moment. I was so happy with that lesson because they both committed to go to church and the the YSA activity on Friday. Turns out that neither of them were able to keep their promise of going, but hopefully next week we can get them both there. The more YSA we can get, the better!

On Friday  we has a lesson with a less active named Moroni. Everyone in his family is a member, but he's kinda been the black sheep because he says he's always just questioned everything about the church. He's reached a point though that he really wants to know for himself  if this is all true, so we've been meeting with him and it's been inspiring to watch his testimony grow. When we started with him, he didn't even have a testimony that God existed or that Jesus is the Christ, but by just feeling the spirit really strong and putting in the effort he has a genuine testimony of that now. Right now he's trying to study about the church to know if it's true. It's interesting because he's had a lot of things thrown at him that would weaken any member's testimony, one of which was an excommunicated Bishop's comments towards the temple. We had left him 3 chapters in D&C about Joseph Smith and he said he read them and felt a really strong desire to live the gospel, marry in the temple, and be a faithful member after reading. It's cool because his personal revelation didn't have to do a ton with the topic of the chapter, but the spirt gave him what HE needed and also the boost in his testimony that the friend's comments didn't really affect him. Power of the scriptures!!!

This Sunday, Henry's WHOLE family came and we were able to put their baptismal date as THIS THURSAY!!! We picked the day in ward council after church ended and everyone is super excited about it! I'm way excited because this coming Monday is transfers, so I'll be able to be in their baptism before I leave! It has definitely been a long wait though, because we started teaching them back in October! Oh, and also on Sunday, Jesus Orlando (my convert from Garcia Gineres) found me! He came to the Sunday services with a friend and told me all about the happenings in Garcia. It was definitely a boost seeing him!

To end, I just want to let you all know that I really know Christ lives, and I know it by the power of the Holy Ghost. I know the Holy Ghost will always inspire us to be better and more loving towards everyone around us. I love that the two great commandments have to do with love because that's what makes life happy and worth living. When we chose to love others and love God more than ourselves, that's when we're really following Christ. I know sometimes it's crazy hard to get over ourselves, and it might take a life time to really learn it, but that's what life is for! That's why Christ gave his life for us- so that everyday we can truly be different and more like Him.

Love,
Hermana Harper

Rosca

Baby Jesus in the Rosca

Rosca Party

Cow Stomach!

Hermana Pitcher and I eating cow stomach!!!  Yum!

Relleno Negro - Black because of the burnt chilis they use

Yummy Ribs!!!

Brisas - Week 34

Me and My Comp - Hermana Pitcher (From Alpine, UT)

Happy 2015!!!

I must say, the new year is very well celebrated here in theYucatan!

To start off, all day Wednesday we were seeing these stuffed people sitting on the sides of the road.  At lunch we asked what was up with that, and the member told us that people stuff clothes and stick rockets in there to make an old man to represent the old year. Then at midnight they shoot off the rockets inside. Along with that tradition, they have a bunch of other things they do, like eating 12 grapes that represent 12 wishes for the new year. It also matters a lot what kind of underwear you wear that night because if you want love, you have to wear red. If you want money, green...and so on. All the colors mean something.  Also, something funny is if you want to travel the next year you have to run around the block with a suitcase!

We got home Wednesday night like normal, and we decided to stay up until midnight. It wasn't too hard, because we laid in our hammocks talking for awhile and then after started cooking potatoes to make a little stir fry.  It was just potatoes, peppers, onion, and ketchup, haha. It didn't turn out too bad either! Then a little before midnight we ate and opened a bottle of sparkling cider a member had given us. It had a cork and everything, so I that's what made it really start to feel like the new year! Hahaha.

We went outside at midnight and it was really fun because ALL the neighbors were out and all the stuffed old people were burning and there were fireworks, and more than anything just lots of noise! A couple neighbors came over to wish us a new year and gave us some food from their party, so that was really nice! I'm pretty sure everyone here stayed up the WHOLE night because the next day it was pretty dead. Mexicans are quite the partiers!!!

Besides new years, we've had a pretty average week. We did contact a golden reference though! We had two members with us when we contacted Ricardo, and he's been super prepared! He went the last two sundays to another ward because that's where his uncle goes, and he says he really feels like its true and wants to get baptized. It was really fun to teach him, because he was super interested and excited by it all. It got the members excited too, which makes us really happy!

On Sunday Ricardo came and also a bunch of less actives! With the new schedule (8am), a lot of less actives got more excited to go again. I think we had like 9! One that came, brought her husband who isn't a member, so hopefully we can get him excited about baptism! Also, on Sunday we had a baby blessing and all the family that came to support was from my old ward.  That was really fun to see everyone! They told me how the people I'd taught are doing and it was really special :) !

Me and Hermana Pitcher are hoping this new year brings lots of Prospects! Our president has been changing some things to get us working more, so now we have 2 hours of studies instead of 3. I'm not sure how I feel about that yet because it's been really hot lately and the heat really drains your energy! January is weird because it gets reallly hot for a day, but then the next it rains, then gets hot again. Hopefully it works out good having more work time!

Until next week!!
Love, Hermana Harper

House Guest!

Roommate!

Wierd Fruit!

 

Our Ward Mission Leader

 

This Elder is in our ward and will be leaving on a mission to Puebla, Mexico in February!

New Years Eve Celebration!

Our New Years Eve Feast!

Stuffed Old Man On Fire

Brisas - Week 33

Me and My Companion (Hermana Pitcher)

¡Bueno!

Hermana Pitcher and I definitely had an unforgettable Christmas! The whole week we were laughing because Christmas Eve and Christmas day we had VARIOUS meal appointments.  We both thought we would be able to handle it, but I really suffered, haha. Christmas Eve we made pancakes and had a normal morning contacting people. We were pretty hungry when we got to the food, but when we got there, they said they had a surprise for us. Some of their friends went out of town and left their house keys, so we went with them to the friend's house. The house was REALLY pretty, so while the mom cooked, we went and explored the house with the daughter. After about an hour of being there, the mom fed us a little to hold us off until the "real" dinner was ready. We hadn't planned for that though, so we had to leave to go to another appointment at 5pm, and then told them we'd come back. At the next house, we visited Henry and Susi (investigators) and ate dinner with them. They made a broth with chicken, lettuce, corn chips, avocado, and lime (very typical). We only stayed there about an hour, then had to go back with the family we had been with before. We couldn't stay that long with them again because we had ANOTHER food appt at 8pm. I felt bad because I think they had thought we'd just be able to be with them all day. At 8pm we ate with another investigator family who is really awesome. It was a struggle eating that last dinner, but we both managed to eat everything and not let it show, haha. :)

Christmas day we got a surprise from the Zone Leaders and a member who inspected the house and asked about repairs that we needed.  After they left, we went with an investigator (Alma) who has a son on a mission and had "breakfast." I guess breakfast food here isn't really a thing because we ate dinner leftovers, haha. That was at like 10:30am and at 12pm a member family came and picked us up to have lunch with them at their house. If their food hadn't been so good, I'm not sure I could have done it, but it was delicious! After, we watched the video with them "He is the gift." Everytime we watch that video with someone the spirit really hits the people watching it...and I love it! Once we finished up there, the wife took us across the street to her husbands family because they were they ones who were going to lend us their computers for the Christmas Skype call. Hermana Pitcher decided she wanted to test it before, so she did a test call to her family, but right as they answered I think she regretted her decision. Haha her dad answered and was like "Hija bonita!" and all the members of this family who's house we were at were laughing. I don't think her family knew a bunch of people were right there so they started freaking out all excited and asking questions and Hermana Pitcher was super embarrassed. Once she hung up, one of the members was helping me set mine up and I didn't want to call yet, but he hit call anyway! Haha it was a little awkward because everyone was watching at first, but I'm glad I did because I got to see Drake for a minute! After that, they took us home to drop off MORE food that a different family had dropped off for us and to leave the computers at our house until 6pm. We didn't have much time when we got to the house, so we hung out at the house for a minute, and around 5:30 went to the other member's house to Skype. It was definitely a fun couple days, but I think it threw us out of our missionary groove a little!

The rest of the week we did our normal missionary stuff. On Friday we went as a zone to a tianjis, which is like a flea market,  pretty much. They´re pretty big here and they're kinda fun. We sang as a zone, then after contacted those that we could.

That same day we went and saw our recent convert, Jose, and to our surprise, he wasn't doing too good. I think he was a little hurt  we hadn't come by the two days before because he got really critical of us and told us a bunch of doubts had come into his mind. He said he felt confused now because he felt like he was still catholic in a way and he told us our time should be used to look for people who don't know anything about God. He said he felt like we didn't seem real because we don't share that much about our personal lives and he feels like we're always disappointed with him because he feels like he can't ever be how we are. We had a long lesson and apologized because we don't always do things perfectly and reviewed the restoration with him, because I think he had been forgetting. The lesson ended pretty good, and he apologized too for being critical. On Sunday he came and brought his mom even, so that's a good sign!

Other than those things, nothing else was too out of the ordinary. Starting in January, church starts at 8am, so that will be fun getting all our investigators there so early! Haha. I think our next baptism will be the 10th of January. We just need to get Henry's family to church one more time, and I think they'll be ready! Then the week after, we'll have another baptism for Leticia. She's been an investigator for a while, but has just been waiting to have her divorce finalized so she can marry the guy she's living with, who's a member. Hopefully we'll be starting off the new year good with a few baptisms!

¡Hasta Luego! Hermana Harper

Fancy House - Taking a Swim!!!

The Fancy House!

Christmas Food!

Christmas Food!

Christmas Socks!!!

Brisas - Week 32

Merry Christmas!!!

It's crazy to think Christmas is almost here! Yesterday, we celebrated Christmas as a mission and all got together in the Stake Center in Centro. ALL the missionaries were there, so that was really fun! It started at 10am and the President and his Wife spoke, and then after  we took turns going up as a zone to sing.  Later two missionaries shared an experience they've had sharing the new video "He is the Gift." I think there are like 11 or 12 zones, so the meeting lasted for a good 3 hours. After, a professional choir from Merida came and sang. There were several people from our ward, so that was neat listening to and seeing them. After the devotional, we ate. I LOVED the food! They had salad, potatoes, meat, vegetables, rolls, and chocolate cake and ice cream. Haha,  something funny though is that everyone got sick from the food. This morning our entire zone had diarrhea, and at the store today we ran into 2 sisters from a different zone and they said their zone all got sick too. Fun present to all the missionaries, right !?!  Really, it's not too bad though, me and my companion are surviving!

After the lunch yesterday, we had a talent show which was super entertaining. Most people sang, but there were a couple of  hilarious skits mixed in. After the talent show we had a gift exchange. All of us were assigned another missionary and had to buy a gift that was as close to 50 pesos as we could. I put together earrings and candy and stuff like that and the gift I got was basically the same, haha. It was a lot of fun! That ended about 7pm and from there we went to a park to sing and contact people. That turned out pretty good because there were tons of people to talk to.

Today we had our P-day and it’s been a crazy day to say the least. We had district meeting as usual and after went to the plaza to buy food. The last thing we always buy is fruit and Hermana Pitcher was picking out her bananas and got her wallet stolen right out of her hand! I was on the other side looking at something else, so I didn't see anything, but when she came to put her bananas in the cart she realized she didn't have her wallet and started freaking out. She keeps evvvverything in her wallet so that really stunk. We had even just pulled out money so she had like 80$ in there- 900 pesos which is A LOT as a missionary! We went to security to see if they could look at the cameras, but they couldn't figure it out, so we just had to call the mission offices so they could cancel all her cards.  Hermana Pitcher was pretty upset, but after we got things figured out she was ok.

Something super exciting this week is that we had a baptism on Saturday!! That morning we were in a pueblo called Tixcocob and it was ADORABLE! People don't really use cars there, so the roads are all really little and everyone goes around walking or on bikes. There are these tricycles here that people use all the time and I saw tons in Tixcocob. They make them into little bike taxis and they're so cute! (I need to take more pictures of those)  When we went downtown it reminded me of Disneyland or Lagoon when you walk down the little fake streets and all the stores are right up against the street with stuff out to buy. It was really cute!

All the missionaries in the stake and some ward missionaries went to the Tixcocob activity and we all took a bus there. We first met in the prayer house they have there (which makes you super grateful for chapels) and from there all split up to contact and search for less actives. I went with one of the young women from another ward and we had lots of fun. We talked to just about everyone we saw and invited them to meet us downtown at 5pm because we were going to be singing and giving out gifts. We talked to lots of people, but we didn't seem to have a very good turnout by the end. We still sang though and handed out wrapped up Books of Mormon to those that were nearby.

We got back from the activity around 6:30 and the baptism started at 7pm. We were a little stressed because when we arrived, Jose (our investigator that was getting baptized) wasn't there and wasn't answering his phone. At 7pm, we left with some members to see if he was home.  When we drove by his house, he was outside all dressed up and he was getting in his car with his mom. I was happy he hadn't forgotten, but a little frustrated because nothing seems to go smoothly here! We got back to the church at 7:20ish and they had all waited for us, so that was nice.  From there, everything went really good.  Jose seemed really happy! It was neat because another youth did the baptism and it was his very first time baptizing. I love seeing the ward members welcome the investigators into the ward like they do, because it really strengthens them both,  and the missionaries too! :)

Well, I hope everyone enjoys their Christmas!! Haha, my companion and I have 3 meal appointments (2pm, 5pm, 8pm) Christmas Eve, so we'll definitely be enjoying our holiday here!

With all the presents you're getting and receiving, don't forget about the most important one. One thing I've come to understand is that for me, Jesus Christ is a gift because through Him, fresh starts are real. I can change things about who I am or bad habits I've had and the changes are real. When I'm held up on Judgement day, if I've done everything I could to make good decisions, and really changed, I won't be held guilty for all the bad decisions. I've realized that nothing is immediate though. You have to constantly to work at things and not let yourself believe that you've already done enough and you don't have to keep working on it. The hard work is what really makes you happy in the end!  Being lazy about things doesn't!

Feliz Navidad! Con amor, Hermana Harper

Unexpected House Guest!

Bedroom in Our New House

Study Area

Kitchen in our new house - BEFORE!

Kitchen in our new house - AFTER!!!

Our Beautiful Christmas Tree!

And the Stockings were hung...

Tixcocob

Bus to Tixcocob

Tixcocob Activity

Tixcocob Activity - Wrapped Book of Mormons

Jose's Baptism

Missionary Christmas Party

Christmas Party

Christmas Party

Puss-In-Boots Kitty!

Our Adopted Dog - His name is -Carlos Juanito Harper Pitcher